The Eternal Necropolis

On Sunday I had a conversation with ChatGPT about the One Page Dungeon Contest.

Me: 

I need an idea for a dungeon for the One Page Dungeon Contest. This year the subject is "And Still They Rise". I just need a couple of sentences please.

ChatGPT:

The Eternal Necropolis

In the desolate wasteland, a hidden necropolis emerges from the shifting sands. Despite countless attempts to destroy it, the undead within this cursed dungeon continue to rise, defying death itself. Brave adventurers must navigate treacherous traps, battle hordes of relentless undead, and uncover the source of this perpetual resurrection to put an end to the eternal nightmare.

Me: 

Can you shortly describe 5 rooms?

ChatGPT:

Certainly! Here are short descriptions of five rooms within "The Eternal Necropolis":

1 Hall of Resurrection: A vast chamber lined with rows of sarcophagi, each containing ancient mummies. As intruders enter, the mummies rise from their slumber, their decaying bodies reanimating to defend their resting place. The room echoes with the eerie chants of necromantic rituals.

2 Chamber of Reflection: A serene room adorned with mirrored walls and a still, reflective pool at its center. However, the mirrors hide malevolent spirits that attack anyone who gazes upon them. To progress, the adventurers must navigate the room blindfolded or find a way to dispel the vengeful apparitions.

3 Maze of Wandering Souls: A twisting labyrinth where lost souls endlessly roam. Phantoms whisper distorted truths and half-truths, attempting to mislead those who dare to enter. The walls shift and change, forcing the adventurers to rely on their wits and intuition to navigate the maze and avoid being trapped forever.

4 Chamber of Eternal Flames: A scorching-hot room engulfed in perpetual flames. The air crackles with intense heat, and the floor is covered in molten lava. To progress, the adventurers must locate hidden platforms or activate ancient mechanisms that temporarily extinguish the flames, providing brief respite to cross the room unscathed.

5 Crypt of the Undying King: A grand sepulcher that houses the remains of a long-forgotten ruler. The room is guarded by spectral knights and shadowy guardians who fiercely protect their fallen monarch. To proceed, the adventurers must uncover the secret burial rites that bind the Undying King's spirit and perform a ritual to finally put his restless soul to rest.

Me:

Thank you.

ChatGPT:

You're welcome! If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask. Good luck with your One Page Dungeon contest!

Honor Among Thieves

I watched "Honor Among Thieves", the D&D movie, with my family. Then I asked my daughter what she thought about it.

"Although the plot of the movie was predictable, the movie was entertaining. There were various funny jokes and I found the characters to be quite well written. All of the characters had thought out back stories which the audience got to see through their storytelling. The stories also influenced and explained the choices they made. Overall I would recommend the movie."

Picture and Hashtags

I’m currently reading one of the classic OSR texts, "Google+ for Dummies" by Jesse Stay.

It has an interesting chapter about trolls.

#osr #rpg #dnd #dsa1 #1pdc #dungeonsanddragons #oldhammer #googleplus #google #fordummies #familienfotos #madefordocumentary #dokumentarischefamilienfotografie #my_magical_moments #echtundungestellt #unseralltagistihrekindheit #fortheloveofthephotograph #documentyourdays #familyphotojournalism #thisdetailedlife #madefordocumentary #streetphotography #soulportraits #thebeautifulreal #reflectivemoments #tropicalsunset #people #powermorning #instapic #hereandnow #simplepleasures #goodbye2022 #welcomeapril #nice #moments #memories #wunderbar #sylt

...

If you like this sort of thing, hashtags and pictures, I mean, you can find me on Instagram, under the username zinnling.

One Page Dungeon Contest

A few weeks ago a parcel arrived from Waynes's Books with three D&D Endless Quest books:

#1 Dungeon of Dread
#5 Revolt of the Dwarves
#6 Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons

My kids got these books because they wrote a dungeon for the One Page Dungeon Contest last year and received an honorable mention.

I found a translation of Dungeon of Dread on Ebay which my daughter is currently reading. Die Höhle des Ungeheuers.

This year, the deadline for the One Page Dungeon Contest is on May 1st.

Lina, Hendrik and Joaquín are already excited, thinking about another dungeon ...

Undecided

I'm undecided. Should I buy this T Shirt?

Or this one?

Hamilax Eshmunazar Abimilki's Labyrinth

In May Krüger and I met several times in an Italian street restaurant, drank white wine and wrote a simple Gurps adventure for Sven, Bettina and Andi. Most of us hadn't played roleplaying games in a long time. For Bettina it was even the first time.

The adventure took place on the Greek island Kalimera, in the land house of the rich merchant Hamilax Eshmunazar Abimilki and in his labyrinth. Sven played the part of Stavros, a tough greek hoplite, veteran of the Persian wars. Andi's character was Sephalos, a runaway slave, claiming to be a tough Greek hoplite. Bettina was Viviane, an Amazon warrior, equipped with knife and bow.

So here it goes: They are led into the house by Ploriax, a dwarf wearing a bull's mask. They meet Abimilki. He  shows them around, talking incessantly. He stops in front of a large empty cage. Abimilki wants them to go to another island, see a merchant, buy a very valuable, rare item and bring it back undamaged. He offers a lot of gold if they succeed. The three adventurers agree. Abimilki wants to test them first. Stavros protest but gives in.

They are led into the garden by the dwarf, to the entrance of a labyrinth. He takes off his mask and tells them that Abimilki is an obsessive collector of strange creatures. Stavros, Sephalos and Viviane enter the labyrinth. A heavy door closes behind them. The walls of the labyrinth are about 3 meters high. They start to move forward. At different places there are numbers written on the walls, numerical series like 2 / 4 / 7 / 11 / 16 or 3 / 7 / 2 / 8 / 1 or 2 / 9 / 30 / 93 / 282.

From now on, I'm going to give some options the players had, instead of writing a session report.

1: Above their heads, they see a net with 3 large spiders. They are poisonous but will try to run away when attacked.

2: More spiders.

3: A room, 3m x 3m. A little green body lies on the floor, half eaten and already starting to rot. It's covered by cloth. Something is moving underneath it. A classical D&D monster. A Carrion Crawler.

4: The adventurers are attacked by a goblin with a morning star. He is going berserk and probably ends up hurting himself before he reaches anybody. He might even knock himself unconscious. A couple of meters behind him, more goblins with long ears and sharp teeth are hiding behind a large shield. They shout something in broken Greek. "Please don't attack! He is drugged."  If attacked, the goblins throw sticks.  In close combat they fight with large knives and bite. If the adventurers want to talk, a goblin with an oversized helmet steps forward, the goblin king. He gives orders to grab the fanatic with the morning star and bind him. Then he tells the adventurers how his group was captured by elven slavers from Nitz Oxib Tzaq, sold to Abimilki and put in the labyrinth. In great detail he describes the beautiful Karubi Islands where they are from and how sad their life is now. He is very clever and tries to barter a couple of useless marbles for some of the equipment the adventurers carry. He is especially interested in shiny weapons. It is likely that the adventurers will give in. Before wishing them good luck, the goblin king talks about mushrooms which can be found in the labyrinth, red mushrooms that make the eater go berserk, blue mushrooms that cause deafness.

5: A room, 3m x 3m. A long-nosed monkey sits on the floor in the middle of a colony of red mushrooms, eating. He attacks immediately.

6-9: The provisional home of the goblin tribe. A couple of chests which serve as tables, chairs, closets and beds. The floor is covered with straw and bones of rats and other small animals.

10: A room with a well in the middle. Lilies cover the dark water. The air is damp. After a while a nymph appears. She is chained to the bottom of the well. She will talk to the adventurers, try to seduce them, negotiate, giving pieces of information about the other inhabitants of the labyrinth and its construction. She can't be entirely trusted. She is bright and charming. She might be helpful. The only thing she really wants is to be freed from the chain. If attacked she will withdraw to the water, taking somebody with her if she can. (Not that she needs company. She likes the taste of human flesh.) 

11: The adventurers meet a large friendly creature, a brain golem. The golem was created to invent numerical series. The creator of the golem got bored and sold him to Abimilki. Unfortunately Abimilki has no interest in numbers. Now the golem is looking for a new master. If the adventurers show enough interest, they gain a very helpful servant.

12: The brain golem's room. There are numbers written all over the walls: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97 ...

13: Now this is strange. The air is filled with smoke. Chests are piled up next to the walls. Rats are squeaking from within. Green and pink liquids are boiling in kettles. It's some kind of lab. A goblin lies on the table, surrounded by 3 man-sized tentacles. They try to transform him into a tentacle which is probably as difficult as turning a stone into gold. The goblin is still alive and can be rescued.

14: Two hyenas. On their way through the labyrinth the adventurers have probably already heard them giggling eerily several times. If the adventurers had gotten into a fight with the goblins, the hyenas might have appeared to fetch some corpses.

15: Another 3m x 3m room. Blue mushrooms grow on the floor. If you eat some, you turn deaf temporarily, if you eat a lot, forever. The golem, the nymph or the rescued goblin might advice to eat the mushrooms as an antidote to sonic attacks.

16: A 5m x 5m room with a large hole in the middle, 3 m wide and at least 10 m deep. Looking around, the adventurers notice that little channels lead to the hole from other parts of the labyrinth. They are filled with the blood of the creatures that were slain by them. A large demon crawls out of the hole, a mixture between an octopus and a cock. You can see pictures of it here. The more blood the adventurers have shed before, the stronger he is. He attacks with tentacles, claws and a long beak. Every ten seconds he lets out a horrible scream which causes the adventurers to attack each other, unless they have a strong will or are deaf.

Dwarves and Greeks versus Orks and Draconians / HotT Battle Report

Last Saturday I got together with Sven, Andi and Krüger to play HOTT. Andi actually travelled 190 km for this and Sven even 510 km.

We used single based miniatures on large bases with an 80 mm frontage. Andi and I played as a team. Krüger and Sven were our opponents.

Andi played a dwarf army, made up of the following elements: Blade General (C-in-C), 6 Blades, 4 Spears, 1 Behemoth (2 little plastic Kinder Surprise trolls which look kind of cool), 1 Airboat, 1 Artillery.

I played 8 Shooters (Greek slingers).

Krüger played an Ork army: Warband General (C-in-C), 5 Warbands, 2 Knights, 1 Behemoth, 1 Hero.

Sven brought a Dragonlance army: Hero General (Sivak Draconian), 1 God (Takhisis), 4 Blades (Baaz Draconians), 2 Flyers (Kapak Draconians), 4 Hordes (Hobgoblins).

I don't know much about Dragonlance but Andi and Krüger got quite excited about this. Probably because they have read all the Dragonlance books.

Andi and I were the defenders and placed the terrain: a Mayan Temple and some woods.

Andi deployed his army in the centre. I placed 4 Shooters on the left flank and 4 Shooters on the right flank.

Krüger deployed his Hero, Behemoth and 2 Knights in the centre, opposite to Andi's army, and his Warbands opposite to our left flank. Sven placed his whole army opposite to our right flank. Their plan was to destroy our flanks quickly, I guess.

Andi's Airboat was a bit too daring and got killed by the Ork Hero at the beginning of the game.

The God Takhisis appeared early on and left in Sven's next bound. This is the only element he lost during the game.

My Greek slingers were hard to kill. They were able to push back Sven's Blades several times and even killed a couple of Warbands on the other flank, while Andi's army slowly destroyed the centre of the Draconian + Ork alliance. Apart from the Airboat, we lost 5 Shooters and 1 Blade. When Andi's Behemoth killed Krüger's Ork Hero after 2.5 hours, we won the game.

It was the first HOTT team game I have played. I like team games. It was lots of fun. I especially enjoyed the rules for demoralized commands.

Bettina, Sven's girlfriend, was so kind to take pictures of the game.

Dungeon Number One

Back in 1984, I game mastered my first D&D adventure. I drew a dungeon and invited my cousin Sven and his friend Paul. They played a wizard and a thief. They were six years old. We didn't have any idea how roleplaying games work.

The game was over in half an hour.

This is the dungeon:

Room 1:

The room measures 5m x 4m. Two pirates sit around a table, gambling and drinking rum. A third pirate lies on the floor and sleeps. Why did you enter their house anyway?

A door leads to room 2.

Room 2:

A bucket full of crabs. Some old clothes are scattered on the floor. A secret door (S) leads to room 3.

Room 3:

3m x 2m. There is a large cupboard filled with bottles, clothes, cured meat, sabres, helmets and a chest. The chest contains 10 pesos de ocho and a doll made out of wood and cloth. (Don't take it! Its evil voodoo magic will get you into lots of trouble.)

I think Sven and Paul didn't make it to room 2. It's possible that the pirates were goblins and that room 3 didn't exist. Hey, all of this happened thirty years ago!

Sven got heavily into role playing and tabletop games as a teenager. It might be my fault. Last thing I heard about Paul is that he became a drug dealer.